It's Got To Be Espresso

Let's Get Started... About ﻿﻿﻿﻿This ﻿﻿﻿Guide...

Why You ﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿Should﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿ Trust Me

I'm James Eagleman. I'm a coffee lover, full time traveler and travel coffee is a topic that I've thought deeply about. Too deeply if I am honest ))

"How to make an excellent coffee in your hotel room" is definitely one of the world's smaller problems...

...but I'm proud to say I cracked the conundrum.

Yeah it's not up there with freeing the slaves but I like to think I'm contributing to humanity in my own small way. Even if I'm only helping out a few coffee deprived grumps!

Coffee is part of my morning ritual and wherever I am in the world I don't feel at home without my morning coffee.

I need a good old cup of joe to kick start my day (spoken like a true addict). It's part of my work routine and my coffee maker is an essential part of my portable office setup... because every good office needs tea and coffee right? ))

Who Is ﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿This﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿ ﻿﻿For

CarryOnGuy.com is mainly a travel website so this page is about the best travel coffee brewing solutions.

While you can buy good ground coffee or beans anywhere in the world making a good coffee is not always so easy.

A lot of hotel rooms provide a kettle but only have instant coffee and let's be honest instant coffee is terrible.

So I always make space in carry on luggage for a portable coffee maker and CarryOnGuy.com is fueled by rich, black Americano coffee!

Regular readers will know that I like to travel as light as possible but I view the 7 ounces that I use​ for my coffee maker as ounces well spent.

This guide will help anyone that wants a good reliable coffee that they can make in an airbnb, in a hotel room, camping or anywhere else they can get their hands on hot water.

How I Tested

​I have to say... I've bean through the grinder to make this post for you 😉 Get it? ))

I ordered every portable coffee maker that was suitable for carry on packing.

I then spent a few weeks testing out the equipment by brewing coffee, drinking coffee and getting high on caffeine.

I then offloaded the gear that I didn't want on ebay to get most of my money back.

I like americano coffee so my main focus was getting an rich full bodied espresso type brew that I could top up with hot water.

But for the sake of this post I also spent some time trying to create frothy milk coffees with travel brewing equipment because I know you guys love your hot milk.

I believe it's possible to get an espresso or americano to rival a professionally brewed cup using only travel brewing gear.

But steamed milk on the road is much more complicated and the results don't quite match what you can get down your local hot milk shop﻿﻿ (aka Starbucks).

The 5 Best Ultra Portable Pour Over Coffee Makers

The lightest way to make coffee on the road

Pour over coffee can taste great but it can be slow and laborious to make. You need to pour in a little water at at time... then a little more... then a little more... then a little more... then a little more... and so on...

On the plus site there are some very compact and lightweight solutions for travel coffee makers. If you don't want to add extra weight to your carry on or you don't want something that takes up a lot of space in your bag then pour over coffee makers are your answer.

We tested these 4 portable pour over coffee makers to find out which one should win a space in your carry on:​

Kuissential SlickDrip Review

The Kuisse﻿ntial﻿ SlickDrip is a collapsible, extremely lightweight pour over coffee maker that's great for making coffee for one person.

Here is a great video showing you how to use it:

​The silicon rubber doesn't leave any taste in the coffee so don't worry about that.

What might be a problem is the time it takes to make the coffee. If you like your coffee piping hot then a drip coffee might not be for you because you need to repeatedly pour in a little water at a time. By the time you have a mugful ready it might not be as hot as you would like.

Also be careful of pouring too much water in at once, aside from making bad coffee the SlickDrip might collapse and scald you.​

One problem with a Cuissential is what happens when you are in a foreign country and you run out of filters? It might not always be so easy to buy new filters that fit although if you are organised you could avoid running out.​

The SlickDrop was probably my favorite of all the pour over coffee makers. It's very light and your coffee beans might weigh more!​

Primula Brew Buddy Review

Things don't come any simple-er than the Primula Brew Buddy. The Brew Buddy is basically like a reusable tea bag but for coffee.

As you'll see from the photo it doesn't require a filter. For me, this can be a bonus because I'm the type of disorganized person that would end up forgetting to pack enough coffee filters for my travels.

Check out the Brew Buddy in action in this video:​

I love how lightweight this is and I love that you don't need filters.

Because the coffee sits in the mug some people over brew their coffee using this...

If you use a tall mug and use the drip method of pouring a little water at a time you can make great coffee with this.

However hotels and apartments might not provide a tall mug so you'll need to pack one. At which point you might be better with an Aeropress. Also while it's easy to rinse out under a tap it's not very fair on the hotel to clog their sink with coffee grounds.

Having said all that, The Brew Buddy is a decent low cost lightweight solution but I love coffee so much I'm prepared to spend a few more dollars and ounces to get better results.

GSI Outdoors Collapsible Java Drip Review

The Collapsible Java Drip is similar to the SlickDrip but it's a bit larger and heavier. Again it requires filters and they might not always be easy to get your hands on.

On the plus side it has a snap of cover. If you've just rinsed it out and want to throw it in your bag still wet then you might find the cover handy.​

The cover though adds extra weight though ​at 4.8 ounces it's still lightweight and an excellent camping coffee maker.

The people who don't like it are like me... they hate the drip coffee process. Like waiting for a kettle to boil making drip coffee seems to take an age.

If you are going to be carrying your bag a lot, for camping or hiking then you'll be glad of every ounce on weight you save. Travel drip coffee makers are great in this situation. However if you are not carrying your bag every day and staying in each place for a week or so then there are better solutions.​

Brewologist Pour Over Coffee Cone Review

​Although it's a theory I don't really subscribe to some people don't like plastic or rubber coffee makers because they feel the plastic contaminates the taste of the coffee.

If you are one of those people the Brewologist Coffee Cone is a stainless steel pour over coffee cone that doesn't require a filters. For me a travel coffee maker that doesn't require filters is a huge bonus because I am a continuous traveler. Though most people won't have this problem if you are going on a 2 week trip you just take enough filters to last you 2 weeks.

The Brewologist is about the same height as a coffee mug but it's much wider. My main issue with it is that it's not collapsible it's reasonably sturdy but I'd be a bit worried that with long term travel it's going to get damaged in my bag.

I also prefer not to have large metal objects in my carry on luggage since I think they attract attention from security staff when going though the departure gates.​

If you love drip coffee then this might be for you. I find drip coffee a bit too much hassle and that's why the Brewologist didn't win my top recommendation.

Presto MyJo Review

The Pr﻿esto ﻿MyJo is a popular single cup portable coffee maker that is very simple to use.

Here is good demonstration of how to make coffee with it:​

The Myjo works with K-cups. I've never used these but some people like them. It might not be so convenience when you are traveling though.

​In a way the concept is similar to the Aeropress in that you manually force water through coffee but it's not a full immersion brew.

The unit is also larger and heavier than the Aeropress so it's no so great for travel.

Also you can make french press style brew coffee with an aeropress whereas the coffee and water don't mix so much with the Presto. It's more like a drip coffee where you pump a little water through at a time rather than using gravity.

If you use k-cups at home and are traveling for short trips then this might be the choice for you.​ For long term travel abroad I'd be worried about finding k-cups. There is a refillable filter, but if you are using this then IMO you'd be better off with an Aeropress.

The Presto takes a long time to pump the water through the k-cup. It's about 2 mins. In comparison with the Aeropress I tend to pour the water, let it brew for 1 minute and the plunge down fast.

There were some complaints about the quality of the product and a number of reviewers reported the seal breaking after longer use.

The 4 Best Portable FRENCH Press Coffee Makers

Try full immersion brews for maximum flavor

A traditional french press is all about full immersion coffee brewing which creates a unique taste that some people love.

The problem with the french press is that the plunger filters tend to wobble and the seal between the filter and the glass needs to be perfect or coffee grinds get into your drink... and I've yet to meet anyone that likes drinking gritty coffee.

Traditional french presses are also a pain in the ass to clean, because the used coffee grinds are not squeezed dry so the temptation is to rinse them down the sink and then you end up clogging the sink.

Some of the portable full immersion brew coffee makers in this section attempt to solve these problems.

The following travel coffee makers are all medium sized products that you could easily pack in your carry on luggage.​​

Espro Travel Press Review

One interesting feature is that you can use the Espro with either paper filters or just the mesh filter.

A paper filter takes out more of the oils whereas a mesh filter just stops the sludge getting into your cup.

If you intend on making a hot coffee in the morning and taking it with you to the office or up a mountain then the Espro is a great choice. It's vacuum insulated and should keep your coffee hot for 4 hours.

The Espro is really a great travel coffee maker but it weighs a bit more than an Aeropress and it's less versatile. It's also a bit harder to deal with the leftover coffee grinds. Even though they don't get into your coffee they are still wet at the bottom of the Espro.

In comparison the Aeropress leaves a pretty dry "puck" that you just shoot out directly into the trash.

Staresso Coffee Maker Review

I liked the Staresso a lot it's different from all the other coffee makers I looked at.

It's interesting because it can do frothy milk too as well as strong or weak coffee.

​On the down side it's quite large, bulky and heavy. It's almost in the same class as the Nomad... it's good to have in the kitchen if you are going somewhere for a month or so... but it's not so great to have in your backpack.

​I don't really do frothy milky coffees so the milk frothing feature is no so useful to me.

Because of the extra weight and messy clean up I couldn't choose the Staresso over the Aeropress as my top pick.​

Just how far can you go with your career as ﻿a﻿﻿ ﻿﻿﻿hotel room ﻿﻿barista﻿﻿?

Travel ﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿Coffee﻿﻿﻿ ﻿﻿﻿﻿Recipe Ideas

We created this section to let you quickly see how to make some well known coffee recipes.

You're going to need to be creative to make them in a hotel room though.

For hot milk, you might need a microwave or some other method to heat the milk. A travel immersion heater might work for that if you seriously need hot milk.

Making the milk go frothy is actually pretty easy with an Aerolatte. You can see the process in the video from Monkey See and his son... you don't even need to heat the milk so you are only limited by your creativity.

Advanced Travel Barista﻿﻿﻿﻿ ﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿Tips

Espresso Crema?

You can see that most of these coffee recipes use espresso as a base.

While not true espresso using an Aeropress﻿﻿ with a steel filter I was able to get a good espresso like crema on my brew.

You want to use finely ground espresso roast and pack it down.

If you don't have steel filter you could try using multiple paper filters.

And aeropress espresso is best made using the normal brewing method rather than the upside down method.

A steel filter in the normal filter position to let the oil through along with a paper filter above the coffee to increase the plunger pressure is an interesting option.​

Frothy Milk In A Hotel Room?

The higher the milk fat content the better the milk froth.

So if you are on the road and you want frothy milk get 2% milk not 0%.

Hot milk in a hotel room can be a challenge. A travel immersion element can be used when there is no microwave. This will heat the milk but they are very very unreliable.

I used an Aerolatte to froth the milk and the results were surprisingly good. My main problem with the Aerolatte is the short battery life. Make sure you are using good (expensive) batteries.​

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